Road to Healing
by 1Yui
Summary: To retrieve a stolen confidential scroll from rogue nins, that was the mission. It was accomplished smoothly and on schedule...well...not quite so smoothly...Sai/Tenten/Lee ONE-SHOT...SPOILER WARNING: manga chapters 614 and 631


**SPOILER WARNING:** manga chapters 614 and 631

**A/N:** I screwed up. Never intended to write something like this again. And I'm supposed to be on hiatus, for crying out loud! But couldn't help it after reading common reactions about a panel from manga chapter 631 and a certain meme on FB. Plus, I'm still LOLing and eye-twitching at Sasuke's brash declaration at this point. _"Let bygones be bygones."_ Really, Sasuke? So here you have it, a possibly depressing, maybe bittersweet one-shot that involves Team 7's reformation and the seemingly forgotten Sai. A few people suggested that he just join Team Gai since they currently lack a member. The suggestion was more of a joke that I found rather amusing but the idea just grew on its own overnight. Gaah! I wanted to write crack for my 10th story! Oh well, this was also loosely inspired by Naruto SD ep48, sorta, so it should count as crack, if you close your eyes and squeeze really, REALLY hard. And maybe it will help to say...NOT to be taken seriously. Enjoy.

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**Road to Healing**

By Yui

To retrieve a stolen confidential scroll from three rogue nins, that was the mission. It was accomplished smoothly and on schedule...well...not quite so smoothly...

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Sai walked soundlessly through the gates of Konoha two days after completing the task. Not that he needed to be quiet at this time; it was just a force of habit as a shinobi, more specifically as a former ANBU. Tenten walked just as silently behind him holding the recovered scroll in her hand. She wearily watched Sai's back as she constantly made eye contact with Rock Lee who was treading the road just as carefully as her a few paces to the right. Tenten raised her eyebrows twice and pointed at Sai with her eyes. Lee scratched his head at the kunoichi's signal, unsure of what to do.

"Uh..." Rock Lee murmured. "Ano…" he uttered louder. "Sai-kun…"

Sai stopped and turned toward him. "Yes, Lee-san…" he said with a twinkly-eyed smile that he always wore on his face. Tenten and Lee found it an inappropriate reaction most times but they were somewhat in the know that the former Root ANBU still had trouble with proper social responses.

"Uhm…" Tenten muttered this time. "Sai…we're very sorry." Rock Lee bent his torso forward in a formal bow. Tenten followed suit.

Sai tilted his head a bit to the side and eyed the ground in thought. Should he be worried? Would they tell him it wasn't going to work? He wouldn't be surprised if they did but it still made him sigh inwardly..._It can't be helped_, he figured. Sai returned his attention to his companions. "What are you apologizing for?"

Lee and Tenten glanced at each other then straightened up to face the other. "We…" Lee began with another scratching of the head. Sai held his breath.

"We called you Neji a few times by mistake during the mission," Lee said. Tenten lowered her own head in embarrassment.

Sai mouthed an _Oh_ before actually saying it out loud. "Oh, that." Then he smiled again, that inappropriately weird happy smile. "It's alright. It confused me the first couple of times but by the third, I figured you were addressing me so I was able to respond properly. We were able to defeat the enemy and recover the scroll on time so it's not a problem." He turned back around and walked on, hoping that was all there was to the matter. The other two followed after him.

"You don't mind that we kept addressing you by someone else's name?" Lee asked from behind.

"Not at all," Sai said without looking back.

"It was still rude of us," Tenten said regretfully.

"You've worked with Neji-san for a long time," Sai said as he turned back around to face them. "I'm aware you miss him. You three are the original Team Gai, after all. I'm just a replacement." He flashed his smile again and proceeded on his way.

Tenten felt a painful prick to her heart at the last statement." Sai said it so casually like it didn't mean anything to him. And yet, no matter how emotionless he was known to be, it couldn't have been meaningless to be considered just a replacement all the time.

It was true that they missed Neji. He had been dead for a few months now after he directly threw himself at harm's way to shield Hinata and Naruto during the 4th War. None of them had time to properly grieve his passing then as all had to keep focus in defeating the enemy. But after the smoke cleared, the reality of Neji's death fell on Team Gai like a great deluge of fire and brimstone. Hyuuga Neji was the genius of the team, the one who first made jounin from their batch, the one with so much promise. He was their comrade and a very close friend.

It was Lee who seemed inconsolable during those first few days before and after the formal rites had been delivered to honor the war's departed heroes. Gai had to punch him a few times and curse at him for losing control as he himself let out equally shameless loud sobs. The two ended up embracing a few times to comfort each other. Tenten wept quietly in public and bawled secretly by herself. She had so much she had left unsaid to her clear-eyed teammate; so many feelings left unexpressed that would forever remain buried within her. She knew that while Lee was more expressive of his grief, he also had to bottle up certain sentiments within him for his lost friend. They were not quite ready to accept his absence yet. And so those reserved emotions just came out in moments they did not expect, as they did in their mission with Sai when they inadvertently called him by Neji's name a few times during battle.

Tenten surmised that they would probably not feel as bad if it was any other shinobi. But it was Sai, the one person who did not need to have his existence disregarded because of someone else's presence, whether physically as in Sasuke's return to Team Kakashi or spiritually as in Neji's memory for Team Gai. But even though both Lee and she were aware of this, they still slipped up and it stabbed at their conscience no end on their way back from their mission. It was Sai's first mission with them too.

Sai spoke like it was nothing. And even when he was practically cast aside with Sasuke's reinstatement, he acted like it was a happy moment to see the errant shinobi finally reunited with Naruto and Sakura. No one could question his sincerity despite the situation looking to everyone else as unfair. The rest of Konoha 11, apart from Naruto and Sakura, riled at Sasuke, openly rebuked him for keeping a proud air despite all the trouble he had caused them.

It was Sai who finally spoke to the others without Team 7's knowledge. He sought out the other teams and appealed to them to give Sasuke a chance_._ It would achieve nothing to bring up Sasuke's past deeds. Sasuke did his part for the village during the war and besides, "_the healing process had to start from somewhere." _And so he asked that Team 7 be cut some slack_, "for the sake of the bond of friendship," _he said. Team Asuma had it, Team Kurenai had it and Team Gai had it. Team Kakashi longed to have it again too, Sai argued. It was the one event in Naruto and Sakura's lives that they had been dreaming about for so long. No one found the guts to ask the obvious question. _What about you, Sai? What about your bond?_

To be resentful in another's behalf was an odd sensation but to them, Sai was more a friend to Naruto and Sakura than Sasuke had ever been. It just seemed that Sai kept working to help preserve the bonds that others had with each other but kept nothing for his own. But how did he really feel inside? Was he really as passive about it as he seemed on the outside? It didn't seem fair any way they looked at it.

Sai, Tenten and Lee finally reached the Hokage Tower and proceeded immediately to report to Tsunade about their mission. They handed over the scroll and were dismissed soon after.

"I'm going to write the formal report. You go on ahead," Sai said. He turned a corner toward a common room to follow through with protocol as the mission leader.

"Sai," Tenten called after him. "We'll wait for you at the yakiniku shop down the street. Let's grab dinner together," she said with a smile. Lee nodded his head briskly in agreement.

Sai nodded his ascent then continued on his way down the corridor.

"We do miss Neji," Tenten shouted after him that made him stop suddenly. "We miss him badly. He's our friend and he will always be an important part of Team Gai's legacy." Tenten witnessed Sai nod his head at this. "But you're a part of the team now too," she said. "And we hope you'll stay on permanently."

"You're not just a replacement, Sai-kun," Lee added. "You're also our friend."

For the first time, Sai couldn't respond immediately with his usual fake smile. Those words were something he longed to hear but had been unwilling to admit to himself in order to keep feelings of rejection out of his system. But there they were, not exactly uttered by the people who he wanted to hear them from initially but…good enough. He considered Tenten and Lee his friends too. It was always good to have friends.

"I'll see you both at dinner," he said, finally able to crack a sincere and somewhat awkward but not entirely weird smile.

The healing process had to start from somewhere.

**~End~**

_Naruto & characters © Kishimoto Masashi_

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Back on hiatus...Cheers!


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